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Scoop.it!
Like most people, at one time in my life I was terrified of public speaking. 
Jessica Wachtel's curator insight,
April 2, 2018 2:40 PM
Inquiry Session-Delivering Presentations
Allesondra Sanchez's curator insight,
April 3, 2018 9:30 AM
Inquiry session 3
Mariana Ortega Rendón's curator insight,
October 26, 2020 12:04 PM
Some semesters ago, I had to select a topic to talk about in a Pecha Kucha presentation. I remember that for many days I thought and thought about which could be the topic I would like to talk about but I did not find anything by myself. I had to ask for help and one of my friends suggested me to talk about my fear of public speaking while doing a public presentation. Ironically, I liked the idea a lot, so it was my topic. I used to think that the fear of public speaking was not common until I did my presentation. The fear or anxiety of public speaking, also known as “Glossophobia” has topped the list of personal fear for many years. When we have to speak in front of many people, we feel that it is going to be the end of the world; we are more concentrated on all the mistakes that we could commit and the comments of the people rather than in the real speech. That is why I found Payman Taei's tips very accurate and helpful.
Practicing is essential to overcome the fear of public speaking. We need to take the time to search a lot about the topic we are going to talk about. When we have it clear we need to create a presentation or at least visual aids that could help us to remember the order and the information we want to share with them. As the author, I find very helpful the creation and use of flash-cards with keywords. After preparing the presentation and selecting the words that will go in my cards, I tend to practice with them. I force myself to remember the whole intervention only guided by the keywords (sometimes it works so well that my speech ends up being spontaneous). Moreover, we need to look for something we are passionate about (sometimes it is not our choice, but we can always transform it). If we do so, it could help us to feel more comfortable and excited to talk about. Besides, since we like the topic, doing the research is not going to take so long, and we are going to enjoy the process. We should also consider as important our reflection about how we present. Discovering which indirect strategies we use to go through a public presentation could help us to understand our mind while speaking. David Carbonell proposes to create a list with all the things we do and tell ourselves while in front of an audience in order to be able to finally accept that we are afraid, and we have to face it. I tend to tell myself that everything is going to be okay, that I can and it will not last forever. Although those positive messages do not usually work for me, people should encourage positive thoughts and attitudes to change the course of fear. Another amazing strategy is including relaxation exercises in our speech routine. Given the fact that I am an anxious person, my breath starts to fade at the moment of speaking in front of many people. This situation has led me to start implementing breathing exercises before the big day. Taking deep breaths could help us to clear our minds and keep going. Finally, but not less important, I found really meaningful the final tip “Be yourself”. If we find a topic we are passionate about, it will probably be related to our life, experiences, or feelings. Speaking about our own experiences could reduce the stress of doing extensive research with a lot of information that it is not ours. We do not need to prepare anything, but be ourselves. Besides, it can help us not to be completely focused on the audience and what they think, but instead start considering our speech as the most important since it is valuable and part of us. If we focus on the good things, we will be able to see that fear is normal and worth it since it gives us the impulse to give our best in front of a crowd.
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